EU Gives France a Backbone

I couldn't resist this, from the Washington Times:

The European Union yesterday swept away a major hurdle to keeping the peace between Israel and Hezbollah by agreeing to provide the "backbone" of a French-led peacekeeping force of 15,000 soldiers in Lebanon. But Europeans said that it could take up to three months for the U.N. force to take control. The European commitment of up to 6,900 European soldiers relieved concerns that the peacekeeping force might not materialize because of reluctance by many countries to send troops into the Middle East cauldron without clear instructions or authorization to use their weapons. An agreement was reached after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met in Brussels with foreign ministers of the 25 European Union states.